Tips to Achieve a Cohesive Instagram Feed
by Yaneris Michel, Social Media Coordinator at MSM DesignZ, Inc.The year is coming to an end and it’s time to start planning your strategy for the next one. If one of your goals for 2018 is to improve the social media presence of your business, or your own, you might want to consider revamping your Instagram feed.
This is super important. When someone finds your business on Instagram, they might take a glance at the top nine images, that’s your only chance to make them stay and follow you or just say bye forever. It’s love at 9th sight or nothing. For that reason, we created this post for you with the basic tips for you to start re-designing your Instafeed. This is not a strict science and you can pick and choose which tips to implement and which to dismiss. Don’t forget, the trick is not to have everything looking the same, but a feed that looks visually appealing to attract more eyes.
1. Let your content talk about you Your content is the most important thing on your Instagram feed. Without good content, it doesn’t matter how many great effects and filters you add to your images. Start by picking the 3 things that identify your brand or that you are passionate about. Or if you have a business, such as a restaurant for example, do not focus only on food, but also try to think of 2 more topics that can make your feed look dynamic, like images of your staff or “happy clients”, drinks, and ambience. Meaning that you’ll not only be shoving food on people’s faces, but you’ll also let them see other parts of your business. Remember that people should be able to understand what your instagram personality is simply by looking at your last 9 pics, so make sure those images are always related to your business’ operations. 2. Pick your feed layout This is a totally optional tip to follow. But it’s a good start if you’d like to have a certain type of feed. Having a feed layout would make it much easier to stick to a consistent Instagram theme. Keep in mind that you must create your layout considering combinations of pictures in rows of three. Some layout examples are: Image+quote+Image, Image+Image+Quote, Selfie+Quote+Image, etc. You can also establish a pattern of an specific kind of “image” to go in your layout (selfies, styles, objects, etc.) 
3. Select your colors or stick to a similar filter This is the most important tip to make your feed look truly cohesive. Make sure you use the same filter with all your pictures or select a color scheme of no more than 3 colors. When using the same filter, you can make it a little different by playing with a lower or higher intensity, or a bit more of contrast from picture to picture. Although, you want to make sure that all pictures are edited in a very similar way. If you decide to use specific colors, you might have to use a feed planner (see tip no. 5) to organize your images, or create less spontaneous but planned images, using specific backgrounds and props. 4. Get graphics done by a pro If you want to use a specific set of colors, maybe your logo colors, or your store’s decoration colors; you might need professional design. At MSM DesignZ, with can help you with this, since we create customized graphics for our clients with a cohesive branding style that involves specific fonts and colors. If you have no idea of how to do it, our social media team is ready to help you create a graphic style for your social media personality.
5. Use a feed planner app Some accounts look too good to be true. But the reality is that there are apps out there that can help individuals, businesses and social media managers create a beautiful feed by allowing to plan ahead and see which photos will look better next to each other. Apps like Preview or Planoly, help you upload your images, drag them around, and arrange them in the perfect way. You would be able to see many rows of content, and have some trial/error time before messing up your feed. Now, are your ready to have a lovely Instagram feed in 2018? What tips are you using to organize your Instagram feed?
Sources
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/guide-instagram-themes
https://thepreviewapp.com/9-simple-tips-to-instantly-improve-your-instagram-feed/
http://heleneinbetween.com/2017/03/create-instagram-theme.html